Taking out the trash 2.0 – from student project to online dashboard

How vessels should dispose of their waste is covered by the MARPOL Annex V regulations. Seeking to eliminate and reduce the amount of garbage discharged into sea from ships, the International Maritime Organisation’s in-depth guidelines in theory provide a systematic approach for crews, vessel managers and owners. 

However, in practice, consistently, safely, and efficiently disposing of waste remains a challenge. As despite the guidelines laid out by Annex V, the quality and availability of port reception facilities varies significantly, as do local rules and methods of handling waste, especially related to plastic recycling.  

Which is where the Wilhelmsen summer students came in.  

Through collaboration with Wilhelmsen ships agents and seafarers onboard Wallenius Wilhelmsen vessels, our summer students designed a simple but unique solution that collected information about how each port handles waste and what kind of waste recycling every country offers.  

Wilhelmsen Port Services have continued to develop the original idea with the global reach of their network and the local expertise their agents provide. The result is the new look online dashboard which includes an overview of what can be disposed of in which port. Together with market leading Ro-Ro operator Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the dashboard has been piloted and tested by crew onboard their vessels.  

Commenting on the evolution of the students’ project Melanie Moore VP ESG at the Wilhelmsen group says, “It is testament to the scope and ambition of our summer internship program and its participants that a tool these students prototyped will now be used for important decision-making onboard vessels. This dashboard will support vessels in putting their waste to shore in a responsible way, in accordance with regulations and available infrastructure.”  

Free to use for all and available at Wilhelmsen.com, the dashboard will be periodically updated with additional ports and information, but Wallenius Wilhelmsen have already committed their entire fleet to start utilising the new tool.   

Filip Svensson, Senior Safety, Quality & Security Manager in Wallenius Wilhelmsen says: “We have 89 ships in our fleet and a large amount of time charter vessels that will benefit from this app. The information it provides is important for the crew onboard when planning where to dispose their waste during the sailing route.” 

Check out the dashboard for yourself here

And learn more about our student programs here.